No Bottle Bill But An On Time Budget Promised

Plans for a bigger better bottle bill were discarded for this year’s budget process, Gov. Elioit Spitzer just said. Aside from that, there was little new substantive news at a late afternoon press briefing, although Spitzer did assure the throng ofÂ information-hungry reporters that the budget would be completed by midnight Saturday — in time to hit the April 1 deadline.

Spitzer also responded to theÂ complaints that have been voiced over the past few days that the budget process is too secretive. He agreed thatÂ itÂ has been “Not public enough. We appreciate that and agree with it,” later adding that some of the more nitty gritty conversations had to be conducted in private.

Spitzer was in the Red Room, flanked by the four legislative leaders, who stood silently during the briefing. The governor assured reporters that details -Â on issues such as spending, tax breaks, etc — would be made public as soon as the various conference committees read the piles of budget bills, then vote on them, starting immediately and working through the Saturday night deadline.

“Do we all wish that there had been more public articulation? You bet,” said Spitzer. “But it took us a long time … before we could converge.”

Essentially, the governor made broad assurances that they have reached consensus on major budget issues, adding that was not the case as recently as this morning.